In a presentation to the government of Angola seen by Reuters and quoted by IDEX Online, Angola’s Catoca diamond mine estimates that it has lost $464 million over the past six years due to heavy underpricing. All diamonds in Angola are sold by the state-owned company Sodiam, which decides on the buyers.
Catoca, which is the world’s fifth largest diamond mine, suffered the loss “due to a government-imposed marketing system that saw the diamonds allegedly sold to politically connected figures close to former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos”.
According to the original report, two industry sources claim that under the government of dos Santos, “these preferential buyers were often politically connected and able to negotiate prices below fair value”. They claim that diamonds from Catoca were “sold on average for 24% below market prices over the last six years up to and including 2017”.
